Poe One

 

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THE HOUSE OF USHER-1960-Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon who died in May 2024) comes to the Usher home to visit his fiancée' Madeline (Myrna Fahey). Brother Roderick (Vincent Price) says he must leave because Madeline is confined to her bed. Rod says that Philip can never marry her because both siblings suffer from an inherited disease that he calls a curse. Philip is told by Bristol, the butler (Harry Ellerbe) that Madeline walks in her sleep. Philip is determined to take his future wife away but Roderick forbids it. He shows Philip portraits of his ancestors who all came to bad ends. After a fight with her brother, Madeline dies. When she is put in the family tomb, Roderick admits he buried sis alive! After Philip has a nightmarish dream, Roderick seems to lose his mind believing Madeline is coming for revenge. However, it appears he's right! 

A great fiery climax caps this the first Edgar Allan Poe adaptation by Roger Corman and Richard Matheson (and Vincent Price). It may just be me but at times Damon's voice sounds like Derek (David Love) from TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE!

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Southern Wolf

 

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WOLFMAN-1979-A son, Colin Glasgow (co-producer Earl Owensby), is summoned to his father's death bed by his cousins (the father is actually stabbed to death). It seems Colin has inherited a curse and he turns into a werewolf when the moon is full. The curse was put on his family by an evil reverend. After a nightly rampage Colin is thrown in jail. The reverend plans on killing Colin's girlfriend but somehow Colin escapes, turns into a wolf and kills the the evil clergyman, unfortunately dying in the process. 

This low budget period piece, very reminiscent of an Andy Mulligan movie, has bad acting & sfx. Star Owensby in the '70's, seemed to have a reputation as a "redneck Roger Corman" based in North Carolina but most of his output didn't get passed the Mason-Dixon line. Director/writer Worth Keeter later worked on the American versions of TV's "Power Rangers" shows.

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Not Really a Remake

 

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NIGHT OF THE DEVILS-1972-An amnesic man is found wandering in a forest. A doctor examines him. The man seems to have suffered some kind of trauma. A police inspector investigates. A woman Sdenka (Augustina Belli; later in HOLOCUAST 2000 (1977)) shows up claiming to know him but when he sees her, he goes berserk and has to sedated. She disappears.

Then while confined to a straitjacket, the man has a flashback. When his car breaks down, the guy named Nicola (Gianni Garko; star of the “Sartana” series of westerns in Italy) takes refuge with a strange family who are deathly afraid of the night. This is because a witch has put a curse on the family and one by one, they become a “Wudalaka”, a type of vampire. He also falls in love with Sdenka. Eventually everyone is cursed and Nicola has to fight them off. He goes crazy. Back in the present, at night Sdenka comes to visit him. Is she alive or not? 

Ok Italian-Spanish production with some good vampire attack scenes, it's based on the same story Mario Bava used in the third segment of BLACK SABBATH. It was the second to last film of director Giorgio Ferroni (MILL OF STONE WOMEN (1960)).

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Louisiana

 

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DARK HERITAGE-1989-Investigative reporter Clint Harrison (Mike LaCour) and co-workers Roger (Joe Jennings) and Daryl (Todd Leger) investigate a. haunted house. 2 of them disappear overnight and Clint goes to the police who nearly accuse him of murder. He watches a VHS tape they made but that doesn't help much. Later he meets Jack (Tim Verkaik) and Greg (David Hatcher) and they do some investigating. For some ridiculous reason, instead of driving away when a storm is brewing, they elect to stay in an abandoned camper. When the storm ends Greg winds up dead with a mutilated face. Clint convinces Jack to help him bury the body so he doesn't get into any more trouble. Later they go back to the house and encounter some members of the cursed Dansen family. 

Based on HP Lovecraft's "The Lurking Fear", it has bad acting and moves at a snail's pace. This is the only feature movie directed by David McCormick who was an editor on many films. In 2011, McCormick was involved in a sequel DARKNESS ON DANSEN HILL but that was a short film.

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Amicus Strikes!

 

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AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS! -1973-Catherine (Stephanie Beacham) goes to live in castle Fenn Griffin with her newlywed husband Sir Charles (Ian Ogilvy) and almost immediately is terrorized by a severed hand that seems to come out of a painting of one of his ancestors. She also sees visions of an eyeless apparition missing a hand. She meets Silas (Geoffrey Whitehead), a woodsman. She asks the family lawyer (Guy Rolfe) for help but he's killed. Charles is apparently hiding something. Neither of them seems so happy when Doctor Whittle (Patrick Magee) tells them Catherine is pregnant. When their maid decides to spill the beans to Catherine, she's thrown down the stairs. When her aunt insists Catherine leaves, the hand strangles her. Everything seems to point to Silas but he seems to have done nothing. When Catherine really begins to act hysterical, Dr. Pope (Peter Cushing) is called in. It seems he shouldn't have bothered. No one will help him. When Whittle decides to tell Pope something he's strangled by the invisible hand. Eventually Charles tells all. A former lord (Herbert Lom) raped a bride and cut off the groom's hand (Silas' ancestor). The ancestor cursed him. 

This well-made but often forgotten Amicus production was more influenced by "Rosemary's Baby" than anything else. Director Roy Ward Baker made VAULT OF HORROR the same year.

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Karnsteins Curse

TERROR IN THE CRYPT-1964-At Castle Karnstein, Laura (Adriana Abesti) has a dream her cousin is killed (it's true). Count Karnstein (Christopher Lee) hires Baron Klauss (Jose' Campos) to do research on Carmilla of Karnstein, an ancient ancestor burned at the stake. While he’s working Laura and the housekeeper Rowena (Nela Conjiu) are in the basement performing a bizarre ritual involving a paper star and we learn Carmilla cursed the Karnsteins just before they killed her. Later a woman drops her daughter Ljuba (Ursula Davis) off at the castle. Then Annette (Vera Valmont) the maid and the count’s mistress tells the Baron that Laura is the spitting image of the infamous Carmilla. Laura and Ljuba seem on the verge of becoming more than friends. The Baron works hard but Karnstein seems to change his mind and doesn't want the Baron to do anymore research. It's become apparent that Laura is possessed by the spirit of the vengeful Carmilla and she's set her sights on Ljuba! Later at night Laura and Ljuba decide to investigate the mysterious bell ringing in the ruins where Carmilla was killed. They don't bother dressing, just run over there in their nightgowns! There they find an old hunchbacked peddler (Angel Midlin) hanging from the bell rope with his hand cut off.

Back at the castle, after Annette has pleasured her boss she spies Rowena wandering around using a hand (presumably the peddler’s) as a candle. It's a ceremony to find out who killed the peddler and it seems to point toward Laura’s room. But someone stabs the housekeeper. Annette runs in horror. Suddenly the whole story cuts to Rowena’s funeral. When the lights (candles) go out Laura sees Rowena sit up in her coffin and point. When Laura and Ljuba disappear, The Count and The Baron go looking for them. They find the Count’s cousin Franz (John Karlsen) bent on revenge (father of the girl killed in Laura’s dream). They also find Annette's dead body. It turns out Carmilla's actually possessing Ljuba. The trio bust into Carmilla’s tomb and put a stake through her. 

This black and white Italy/Spain co-production has it's moments but suffers a little from chopping editing. It was released in America through AIP. Lee made THE GORGON for Hammer the same year. It's based on a novel by Sheridan LeFanu but it isn't credited.

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Lon Frank

THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN-1942-In the wake of events that transpired in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, the angry villagers blow up Castle Frankenstein despite the best efforts of Ygor (Bela Lugosi; also in BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT the same year) to dissuade them (the broken neck ex-assistant to Wolf Frankenstein seems to have recovered from being shot to death in the last installment). Their explosive blasts unleash the monster from his sulfur pit doom of the previous picture much to the delight of Ygor (“My friend!”). After being struck by lightening the monster becomes stronger. The duo decided to visit Vasaria where the baron's second song Ludwig Frankenstein (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) lives. Ludwig is a brain surgeon who studies “diseases of the mind” and is assisted by the cheerful Dr. Kettering (Barton Yarborough; later in the I LOVE A MYSTERY series of films) and the unhappy Dr. Bohmer (Lionel Atwill; also in PARDON MY SARONG with Abbott & Costello the same year) and his daughter Elsa (Evelyn Ankers; in the previous year's THE WOLFMAN). 

Igor and his friend walk right into the village square and scare children. The monster befriends a little girl (“Are you a giant?”) and takes her to the rooftops to retrieve her ball. After returning the girl to her daddy he's overpowered by the cops and townspeople. Cut to Ludwig's residence where town prosecutor Erik (Ralph Bellamy; also in THE WOLFMAN) tells the doctor about an imprisoned madman who killed 2 villagers. But unbeknownst to Erik, Ygor has already met with Ludwig to discuss helping fix his friend's “sick brain”. When he's put on trial the monster escapes and almost kills Ludwig but Ygor's horn playing pacifies him. Bringing him back to Ludwig's laboratory the monster kills Kettering and gas is used to subdue him. Ludwig plans to take the monster apart “piece by piece” but his father's ghost (also Hardwicke) intervenes and Ludwig decides to put Kettering's brain into the monster's head! Ygor convinces Bohmer (who feels his part in Frankenstein's experiments have been overlooked because of a mistake he made years before) to put his demented brain in the monster's skull. Erik accuses Ludwig of deception and the doc nearly 'fesses up but the monster kidnaps his little girlfriend and all that's put to the side. The operation is a success but of course the monster's evil brain has been replaced by one that is even eviler. It doesn't go as planned though. The monster, now talking with Ygor's voice plans on ruling the world but it turns out Ygor's blood doesn't match the monster's and he (they?) go blind. The monster kills Bohmer and starts a fire that burns down the house, killing him (for now) and Ludwig while Erik saves Elsa. 

SON OF FRANKENSTEIN director Earle C. Kenton made this fine if a little convoluted follow-up which although cheats on story continuity provides some good scenes and great performances. Cedric Hardwicke is excellent as the noble scientist who wants to do the right thing but once again falls victim to the “Frankenstein curse”. And having Lugosi back as the scheming Ygor (especially since he was killed at the end of SON) is a major plus. Though criticized a lot for his portrayal Lon Chaney (in the first post-Karloff role of the monster) does an acceptable job considering he's not given much to do! Atwill of course is at his best here, the seemingly co-operative assistant hiding a bitter vengeance driven other self. The screenplay is by W. Scott Darling, a prolific film writer before his death by drowning in 1953. GHOST of course features several actors in un-billed roles: Holmes Herbert, Richard Alexander, Harry Cording and Dwight Frye.

Director Kenton later worked with Abbott and Costello and also made two "sequels"  HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and HOUSE OF DRACULA.

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Suffer The Usher....

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER-1949-Some stuffy English dudes discuss Edgar Allan Poe at their club. One of them relates the title story.

Jonathan (Irving Steen) goes to visit his friend Roderick Usher (Kay Tendeter) at his castle. Usher says he's inherited a strange family disease. He also says his sister Madeleine (Gwen Watford who later became famous for a British TV work)) has the same disease. She plays the piano, drinks milk and wanders around the castle. The weird family doctor (Vernon Charles) relates a story that the disease is actually a curse placed on the family by a man their father killed (he was having an affair with their mother). He also tells Roderick about a “temple” hidden in the moors.

The three men go there and meet Rodericks's mother, now a decrepit old hag who has her dead lover's head! The doctor says that if they burn the head the curse will be broken. They leave but come back with their gardener (I'm not sure why they needed a gardener to burn a head) but Mrs. Usher overpowers Roderick and kills the gardener. Then Madeleine has a run-in with mom and is almost killed. Jonathan tries to cheer Rod up by painting and reading until Rod suddenly announces that Madeleine is dead (he tells how in a flashback). He puts her in a coffin, nails it shut and places it in the family mausoleum. 8 days later Rod is brandishing a gun at night because he hears strange noises (nails being hammered, a ticking clock) and thinks sis is coming to get him. He shoots the doctor (but Jonathan doesn't hear anything). It seems Madeleine was buried alive and escaped her coffin (after 8 days?). He tries to shoot her and fails and she tediously chases him to the roof where he falls to his death and Madeleine disappears (all the time mom is watching).

Where Jonathan was all this time isn't explained but he shows up in time to escape the burning castle, set on fire by lightening. Your guess is as good as mine...

Director Ivan Barnett did little else but this strange quirky adaptation has it's moments.

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